senate on the idea of chuck hagel running the pentagon. it's been a rough preselection vetting process up to date. he is clearly frustrated and it now speaking out. >> mr. president, i will always give you my honest and most informed counsel. >> reporter: chuck hagel's nomination set up a tough new political fight for the white house, a fight president obama signaled he is ready to have over the plain-spoken vietnam veteran. >> his willingness to speak his mind, even if it wasn't popular, even if it defied the conventional wisdom, that's exactly the spirit i want on my national security team. >> reporter: under fire for his past statements about israel and iran, hagel is speaking out, telling his hometown newspaper the distortions about my record have been astounding, once describing pro-israeli groups about a jewish lobby, unilateral sanctions on iran, he now says there's not one shred of evidence that i'm anti-israeli, not one vote that hurt israel. and he says unilateral sanctions don't work and they just isolate the united states. repu